Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "PLAYERUNKNOWN'S (PUBG) BATTLEGROUNDS - SALES & REVIEW ROUND-UP"

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠Dive into the enduring legacy of PUBG: Battlegrounds with Analytic Dreamz on Notorious Mass Effect. In this segment, Analytic Dreamz unpacks the battle royale pioneer from PUBG Studios under Krafton, launched in Early Access March 2017 and fully released December 2017—boasting over 75 million PC and console sales, more than 17 billion dollars in franchise revenue, and a historic Steam peak of 3.25 million concurrent players.Experience the core mechanics: parachute drops into 100-player matches on expansive 8x8 km maps like Erangel, realistic ballistics with bullet drop and recoil, no auto-aim or superpowers—just scavenging for weapons such as the M416 and AWM, grabbing armor and vehicles, then surviving the shrinking Blue Zone for intense 20–40 minute rounds ending in the iconic “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.” Free-to-play since 2022, the shift delivered a massive 486% player surge, supported by Battle Pass progression, cosmetic unlocks, ranked modes, and arcade variants like Team Deathmatch.Critically praised with an OpenCritic score of 77 out of 100 and IGN’s 8 out of 10 for its thrilling, skill-based tension and tactical depth over arcade-style competitors, PUBG continues to battle persistent cheating issues—Krafton bans millions of accounts annually, including over 7.81 million in 2025—while the community pushes for stronger hardware-level measures.The latest Update 39.2, rolled out on PC January 7 and consoles January 15, intensifies Erangel: Subzero with harsher blizzards and whiteout conditions, introduces high-risk Satellite Crash zones replacing traditional Red Zones, and adds survival tools like Frost Zone Bombs and Thermal Protection Suits for better cold resistance.PUBG Mobile’s ongoing Peaky Blinders collaboration, running January 9 through February 5, brings themed Shelby family skins, Foggy City Thompson SMG, Razor Newsboy Hat accessories, misty vehicle wraps, signature emotes, and the narrative-driven “Shelby Trials” event packed with player choices and exclusive rewards.Spin-offs such as the tactical top-down PUBG: Blindspot further grow the franchise. Recent Steam activity shows peaks around 786,000 in 2025, with daily averages holding strong between 350,000 and 700,000 players.Join Analytic Dreamz for in-depth gameplay breakdowns, anti-cheat discussions, the latest update impacts, and analysis of why PUBG remains the defining battle royale experience heading into 2026.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You know, as far as the new rendition of this podcast, shout out the Red Circle, the main thing I thought to myself is, how in the world have we not gotten to PubG battlegrounds yet? Shepherd, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? Well, ladies and gentlemen, look no further than this segment, because of course, a game that came out in early access, mind you, March 2017, and the year of 2026 is still the third most play game on Steam.

And then that's not it, ladies and gentlemen, because as far as we're about to deep dive into, you know, especially getting into the review and sales roundup, you already know everything you need to know if you're a huge gamer in the gaming industry when it comes to PUBG Battlegrounds. But for this specific segment,

we're going to dive into a lot of things that you may not be aware of. As when it comes to crafting, the publisher of PubG Battlegrounds, I'm not saying they haven't found a successful hit like PubG, but similar to Epic Games of Fortnite, after you make a Fortnite, hence, after you make a PubG Battlegrounds, you really don't need a successor. As when you look at it, the PubG franchise is 80% of Crafton's overall revenue. But then guess what?

when it comes to lifetime revenue is estimated to be and this is from 2024 so it's probably more now but it's estimated to generate to have generated a lifetime revenue of 17 billion dollars so now when you look at this particular game and you dive deeper into why it's the third most play game on steam you come to realize that not only is this one of the more popular games in history of video game creation but in the past three years it's been on an uptick especially on steam as if you look right here analytic dreams video on spotify on spotify to see the video along with the audio safe to say the main thing i was willing to showcase to y'all is that when you look at the actual up uptick an increase in engagement as far as it's three-year metric as you can see right here i don't know

why it has a red mark okay anyways you see right here this is three year and then okay that that arrow is terrible all right hold up there we go hey you just got to put up with it you know what i'm saying hey if you don't like the arrow won't they do i said if you don't like the arrow all right anyways back to it so when it comes to the three years obviously you can tell that this game is on an uptink and of course when you're uptick of course when you look at the all-time peak of eight years ago you come to realize like hold up now how in the world does it have a 3.2 million player count a peak player count that happened eight years ago but as far as the increase of player count it's been on the rise ever since three years ago well ladies and gentlemen i have something specifically to add on that as when

it comes to the rise especially in the past three years safe to say there's a lot of different factors but of course when you look at pub g's rise the player count surged june 2025 averaging around 309,000 versus the 287,000 in 2024 and of course the 164,000 in 2023 and now as far as the peak is hit its peak in what this specific month which is why we're putting a misrespect on pbg once again because of course every single episode with shout out to everybody who tunes into notorious mass effect episodes but the main thing is i always get pub g as flowers especially for laying the groundwork for games like apex legends and fortnight to follow because when you look at it in the totality of course you have games like h1 z1 and i'm gonna get the totality of that timeline

in the second but as far as the last three years the f2p shift at which 222 boosts carried and then obviously when it comes to the live events such as uh or the live operations such as the commander system the maps the collabs like the g dragon slash boot Godi slash Aespa. I think that's how you said. Basically that along with e-sports, which helped the peak viewers rise to 817,000 in 2025, brings back not only nostalgic fields, but also reminds you that this game is phenomenal when compared to other battle real games. And guess what? It came out in 2017. So longevity is not a question at this particular point. And most of the moment at time for PubG Battleground.

So now to transition into what you can play this game on, because of course, with this game being around for so long, you come to realize that the overall, oh no, yeah, the overall platforms that was on at the beginning is no longer. You guys. I'm not trying to say the consoles don't no longer exist with, you know, as far as the PS4 and Xbox one, you know, hey, I guess a decade wasn't enough to save up for a new console Because guess what? Even PubG said,

If you don't have the latest up-to-day console, Woot-D-D-D-Dun. And we beat these folks. What do they do? We beat them. We go forward. Crafton basically said they're no longer supporting the retro consoles, which is the PS4 and the Xbox One,

as the platforms for this game is PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X-N. So shout out to all the legacy PS4 and Xbox One gamers out there for holding gaming back. But guess what? the gaming developer said we had enough. You guys See that's the problem

So that means that you could also play this on mobile Because it's a separate mobile port as far as PubG and of course When it comes to the BR history You already know the accessibility is the main factor to why a lot of people Even try out new BRs in the first place Now they may not stick to it like a PubG

Like an Apex Legends Like a Fortnite But at least as far as the price point usually at this point in time we had to credit Fortnite for this specifically usually at this point in time battle reels are free because of Fortnite but when you look at PubG

I believe it came with a price tag actually yeah I remember buying it when I was playing on my cousin back in the olden days you know what I'm saying on the Xbox literally so when you look at the history of BR safe to say you had its first basically revolution

not revolution it's first creation inception that's the word in 2000, right? As far as like film, novel, things of that nature. Then you had a mod in Minecraft survival in 2012 that a lot of people enjoyed. And then you had a specific game. I know this is abbreviation for something,

but I actually don't know what this is as far as the abbreviation. Let me see. Because it came out in 2012. Oh, Armatoo. Okay, I thought it was like abbreviation for something. It's literally Armour Two. Because this is, oh, it's just, it's just armor to me. come on man you guys i need help anyways uh so we had two armor two day z come out 2012

armor three slash pub g mods that came out of 2013 to 2015 and of course the o g i mean the epitome of what setting the standard looks like in h1 z one because that game came out in 2016 then guess what we got pubg at 2017 then we got fortnight in 2017 then we got fernight and 2017 then we got got Apex in 2019, and then of course, we ended off a war zone in 2020. As you already know, the precipice and just the ultimate quality bar, the H1Z1 set is not recognized enough in the gaming industry. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? So, in my humble opinion, I believe H1Z1 kicked it off as far as battle reaels and how people dove into the specific genre and video game industry.

So as a gamer, it's good to know where your history is from, where your history comes from because, of course, if you don't know your history, you're bound to repeat it. Now, old man told me that one time when I was playing bingo. Where was I playing bingo at? Hey, who don't even know that? So anyways, getting back into PubG, the main thing you didn't know about PubG is that,

of course, if crafting has all these dollars coming in because of PubG battleground, safe to say what experiments or what actual risk have they taken due to the mammoth of money coming in basically the only risk i'm not going to say only because of course when you look at crafting even though pubgy does account for 80% of crafton's revenue it also has other installments such as um i don't even know what that game is called not even going to lie to you it's in zoi i believe it's a life simulator i'm never even i don't even know what that is but it sold one million fast back in uh i think it's 2025 so last year that's how you know i feel like i covered every game of 2025 i don't even recognize that one and then it also had

uh uh a bgmi mobile i don't know what that means but basically pub g had his own mobile game but i don't know what bgm i is and then colisto protocol a lot of people said that it flop and then objectively speaking they definitely flop commercially so um Yeah, all the rest they took in that span of receiving a mammoth of money, amount of money from PubG Battleground, safe to say. It was the ultimate flop. I know that ain't who I think it is. PubG looking at crafting, trying out all these other games,

spending all these marketing dollars or all these other games while to bring 80% of revenue in. I know that ain't who I think. And then guess what? PubGy Battlegrounds at the end of the day looked at crafting like Thanos, looked at the Avengers and seeing, you know, all of that. And what did it bring you? Right back to me. Shepard.

Just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? So now it seems like crafting is specifically, I'm not going to say the done experimenting, because, you know, that's never good. You always want to strive for at least something more outside of what's already working. So as far as PubG Battlegrounds,

safe to say, I don't have to deep dive into everything that's about that you can expect in this game. You should already know what PubG has, but of course, if you're a very casual gamer, and have no idea about pubgy battlegrounds just no it's about a real meaning that it's up to 100 players per match you can have solo duo and squads of four and basically you avoid shrinking blue zone and red zones in the area a certain areas of pub g causes bombings and it's very sporadic you never know when the red zones are going to come which you know throws another element into why into what makes pbg unique and then of course you just have to be the last one standing. It means simple battle real rule format. So when you look at the continuation of PubG, you got to know if somebody's going to say it. Like, PubG is free now. So basically,

PubG battlegrounds did become free to play since 2022. So if you want to dive into PubG Battlegrounds, guess what? It is now free. And of course, they do have other spinoff projects such as PubG Project Arc, PubG Blind Spot. But when you come to the to Crows, Rafter's bread and butter is definitely PubG. But to be fair, PubG Mobile, that is Tencent Publish, is doing solid. I say solid as far as in the mobile format for people who can't get enough of PubG battlegrounds on console. So that's all as far as I wanted, that's all that I wanted to get into as far as

as a game and a battle route, a battle real history. But as a Hall of Fame pocket watcher, I would be very remissed. bring this up as you look at the early access for pbg battlegrounds you have one million copies sold in the first month and a hundred million revenue in three months but that's not it ladies and gentlemen as when they had a peak concurrent count of 3.2 million players all playing at the same time mind you it's the all-time record as far as steam and then of course when you look at its notable records is one of the fastest ever games to reach a hundred million dollars so talking about pubgy battlegrounds giving their respective segment as far as talking about the history of battle

real and also talking about what god is here to be able to enjoy the likes of a fortnight apex legends and pub g battlegrounds all in one safe to say the standard the overall gameplay enjoyment loop was set in my opinion by H1Z1. Now it's on the top of the charts, you know, it's currently not. But I wanted to spend some time on H1Z1 to give them the flowers and they're just due in the kudos because of the games that came shortly after that that notoriously affected their masses when it came to gaming. So anyways, when it comes to the review portion of PubG Battlegrounds, you already know

that everybody was giving it a 10 out of 10, 9 out of 10. So safe to say, Polygon gave it a 10 out of 10 saying, quote, battlegrounds is the refinement of a new language of play but what may earn it a spot in the video game canon is that conceptually efficiency it isn't accessible for every player and it's definitely a sweat type game anyways but it's understandable anybody can easily learn to read this game to watch it to spot the tension and excitement and the drama say IGM gave this a 9.5 out of 10 saying quote unquote well quote player unknown's battlegrounds has taken the military sim gameplay popularized by many games like Arma and

Daisy boiled it down to the most exciting parts and streamlined it into quick and accessible rounds of pure hassle-free survival-based action and if I was to find one more safe to say destructoid the destructoid gave it a nine out of ten saying quote PubG might look like just another military shooter but the developers had put enough silliness in the sandbox where nearly every round feels different you guys So safe to say, I think in this particular segment, if you don't get one thing, if you only get one thing added a segment, is that PubGy Battlegrounds goes into the Hall of Fame of video game history and even that's an understatement. But at the end of the day, if you are a gamer, safe to say, you should definitely try out PubGy Battlegrounds. And of course, it's free to play on the newer consoles such as PC.

such as i was trying to find it again such as pc such as ps5 in xbox series x and s so that being said click my link to my bio let me know one of my social medias what do you think about pub g battlegrounds and at the end of the day the day got it in shepherd all right my fault let's try this again so click my link to my bio let me know one of my social medias what do you think about pub g battlegrounds and his ultimate efficiency as far as it rising to the top as one of the greatest games ever created in video game history.